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Tag: healthcare worker

Nina Pham has received unwanted international attention as the nurse in Dallas who became infected with the Ebola virus while treating a highly infectious patient.

The CDC and hospital employing Nina are unsure how she contracted the disease.She was wearing full protective PPE gear and still became infected. Perhaps following the time tested protocol used by the Ebola treatment experienced Doctors Without Borders would have protected Nina. We’ll never know.

Nina is like many nurses in the US. Nurses are dedicated people who deserve a lot of respect. Night and day they work hard to give the best of care for patients. Most are positive people who make being a patient more bearable. According to friends and co-workers Nina is one of the best.

Young Nurses at Work

It’s heartbreaking to see Nina Pham infected with Ebola. I don’t know Nina, but still shed tears for her. Hopefully our health care system is up to the challenge and she’ll overcome the disease.

Nina’s sad plight brings home one fact. The US and the world are not ready for an Ebola outbreak. Governments around the world must make stopping this Ebola outbreak priority number one.

More than a nurse: Who is Ebola patient Nina Pham?

By Holly Yan, CNN

She tackled one of the toughest jobs any nurse could take on — treating a highly contagious Ebola patient. And somehow along the way, she contracted the deadly virus herself.
Now, as Nina Pham tries to recover in the same hospital where she works, details of her life and career are beginning to emerge.

Here’s what we know about the 26-year-old Texan:

She’s Vietnamese-American

Nurse is first to contract Ebola in U.S. Neighbors of nurse with Ebola concerned Ebola patient given blood from survivor
Pham grew up in a Vietnamese family in Fort Worth, Texas.
She didn’t go far away for college, attending Texas Christian University in the same city. Pham graduated with a nursing license in 2010.

And just two months ago, she received certification in critical care nursing, which deals specifically with life-threatening problems.

She’s very religious

“She is a very devoted Catholic, and always puts the other people’s interests ahead of her own,” said family friend Tom Ha, who has known Pham since she was in 8th grade.
Ha taught Pham in Bible class at his church.

“She comes from a family that is (of) a very strong faith,” he said. So he wasn’t surprised “that she (did) more than her duty called for in order to make sure the patient had a chance to survive.”

When Pham called the church to let members know she contracted Ebola, “everybody at the church” began crying, he said.
How did she contract Ebola?

She loves her job

Ha, the family friend, said nursing isn’t just a job for Pham — it’s a calling.
“I think that she takes it (as) more than a career. I think it’s a vocation, because her family, from the time that we met, they always serve other people,” he said.
When she was accepted into nursing school, she was really excited, a family friend told the Dallas Morning News.
“Her mom would tell her how it’s really hard and a bunch of her friends quit doing it because it was so stressful,” the friend told the paper. “But she was like, ‘This is what I want to do.'”
What’s a hospital supposed to do if an Ebola patient shows up?

She’s a good teacher

Not only is Pham skilled in proper nursing techniques, she was a scrupulous teacher, too.
Jennifer Joseph trained under Pham at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Though she now works at another hospital, she remembers the guidance she received from Pham.

“Knowing Nina, she’s one of the most meticulous, thorough, effective nurses,” Joseph told CNN affiliate KTVT. “She taught me infection control and hand hygiene and protocol. I learned so much of that from her.”

Joseph said she also has faith those taking care of her now will help their colleague recover.
“I have full confidence they’ll be able to get her through this.”

Good News: After being treated at NHI Nina Pham is now virus free. We are truly happy to see this couragous nurse beat the Ebola virus.

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